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“Okay,” you say at last, breaking the silence even though you've got nothing to say, “What does it all mean?”
“I'm going to assume it's something terrible,” Ariel answers, “I mean, most of it seems fairly self-explanatory. Someone seemed to believe that your family was going to destroy itself. I assume – I hope – that they were just being poetic when they talk about this “devouring” stuff.”
“The first line, “rot spreads from the tree's roots” is a fairly common piece of imagery. It basically means, um, the problem started a long time ago. By the time you can SEE that a tree is rotten, it's really been dead for a very long time,” Elle suggests, restlessly tapping a finger against her cheek as she thinks, “So, in this context, I would assume...”
“Because of something your ancestor did, everything is going to turn to shit,” you finish for her, “I'm not the oracle here, but I'd be willing to bet that the ancestor in this theory is my father. So really, it's just confirming what we already know.”
“I don't know. What if it's not him?” Elle wonders, toying with her pen, “What if your father was just one link in a very long chain?”
“Oh, I know. His father messed him up, and he was probably messed up by his father too. How far back do you want to go?” you spit, slamming your clenched fist down onto the table, “Damn it, it never ends!”
Your voice echoes out through the brittle silence, almost drowned out by the heartbeat pounding in your ears. Closing your eyes tightly shut and leaning back in your chair, you try to force yourself to think clearly. “What about you?” you ask Elle, opening one eye to glare at her.
“What... do I think?”
“Are you okay?” you clarify, “Did you get in any trouble?”
Elle fidgets awkwardly in her seat, the unexpected attention catching her by surprise. “No trouble, I don't think. I'm... I don't know, I'm a little rattled. I ran into someone I knew, another girl from training, and she wouldn't leave me alone. She kept asking questions – all perfectly innocent questions, I'm sure, but I was so afraid,” she shudders, “I hope I wasn't too rude to her.”
It's funny, the kind of things that she worries about.
“I think we're getting distracted by the prophecy. It's not really the priority right now,” Ariel muses, “My question is, who cleared out the rest of the files and why?”
“Someone within the Choir, obviously. They're the only ones with access,” you point out, “As to why... at this point, I could believe they did it just to make my life more difficult.”
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